Alienware 17 R4 GTX1080 in game random Stutter & Freeze

I sent them Toshiba's catalog which states my XG4 max operating temperature at 80C. If it surpasses this it should be enough. Mine goes to 82C pretty damn fast and keeps going up if I keep testing. I'm running the latest firmware.

 

Everything is acceptable as long it is within the hardware specification. Although throttling occurs before the maximum allowed temperature... SSD's who thermal throttling is a non issue!!

 

3 hurrahs for me!
Just got the message from support. New mobo, heatsink and ssd incoming

 

My 1070 7700HQ is even suffering from ingame stuttering due to thermal throtteling, only happens once every 10minutes. I am gonna give dell a call and make sure repasting doesnt void my waranty!

 

awesome news! but if you are up for it, you might wanna consider installing those parts yourself and have the on site tech watch you do it.

 

Your symptom is quite different from GTX1080 PD components overheat symptoms. when we have stuttering, it will continue to do so frequently every 10-15 seconds and it will not stop. So it's worth for you to monitor other possibilities like PCH overheating etc. Do you have serious CPU core temperature differential problem?

 

@alexnvidia
Hello, thanks for the response! I do believe that my issue does not lie in throttleing of the CPU(core differences are 5-7 degrees, max out at 85 degrees ,with undervolt 75), nor the GPU(max out at 71). HWinfo shows that prochot is triggered. Disabling Prochot makes everything run perfect! I have a Toshiba SSD which sits at 68 degrees all the time, and in load goes up to 75 easy. I believe the SSD is sending the prochot signal(prochot is sent by something outside the CPU which makes the CPU throttle), as XTU does not show VR throtteling. Anyone thinks this theory holds up? I am contacting dell asap to try and switch for a samsung SSD.

Also my stuttering only happens every now and then(not even close to every 15 seconds, maybe every 10 minutes for 1-2seconds?).

 

so i did some test, i ordered a brand new 7820 GTX1080, no stutter at 75C GPU with OC bio, I then removed the thermal pads on the VRM, chokes, DDR5 etc still no stutters. Meanwhile, my old 1080 with fujipoly 17 pads stutters at 65C GPU. It seems this is a problem with bad QC GTX 1080 chip, a good 1080 chip should not overheat their components that way. if you still in the return period, don't try to fix it, get a new motherboard or new laptop while you can. Actually to make sure you do not get a refurbished replacement, just return for refund and order a new laptop

 

Is there any way I can tell if I was given a refurbished laptop as a replacement? My first order arrived damaged (broken hinge) due to a huge dent in the box during shipping. My replacement just came in and after inspection the left bottom LED light strip is chipped, and the numpad enter key is slanted (Keyboard also feels much more mushy compared to the first laptop). Other than that, the rest of the laptop looks perfect. I ran Prime95 and discovered the replacement runs about 8c cooler before any adjustments. The screen colors is noticeably more yellow too. I installed a new ICC profile but it seems like it didn't change much. I checked hwinfo and it is the same panel and p/n as the first laptop. I was thinking about swapping out the LED strip and keyboard from the first laptop since those were not damaged, and maybe the screen too. I read somewhere that it was possible to check how many times the mobo has been powered on (not sure if this count can be reset)? Is this power on count reliable to determine if I was sent a refurb? There are no stickers indicating it is a refurb unit, and it comes with original new packaging. Your post definitely has me worried =( Any input is greatly appreciated!

All the necessary tools and supplies to perform the PCH mod and repaste/repad have come in and I am wondering if I should even bother.

 

Yes! Thank you!
I repasted mine over 5 or 6 times now. Noctua, Kryonaut and conductonaut. Every time with quality pads and checking everything for contact. Warping the heatsink, lapping it, PCH mod, cooler base, the works! It stutters everytime.

It's not my first rodeo so I am pretty sure the thermal material is not the issue...

We'll see how it goes with my new unit. Fingers crossed

 

Try replacing the AC adapter (especially if your unit reduces the battery life while playing) and use this (Remove the previous driver with DDU) for your videocard.
A poor-quality AC adapter causes a terrific heating of the power circuit which distributes power between the system components.

P.S. I fully restored the warranty and are waiting for the replacement of the motherboard now

 

The only thing I haven't tried is a different Ac adapter. I haven't got an extra.

Yeah I used DDU and pretty much everything else, still no change.

I have a particular issue with the battery too. If I use the laptop on battery power only, the next time I turn it on after connecting to power I'll get a "Non Dell battery" error before the BIOS and it won't charge anymore until I do a battery and CMOS reset.

Maybe my mobo is just the ugliest blackest sheep but I'm having issues everywhere I look...

At least the screen looks great 120HZ goodness everytaim

 

Dell's support service replaced my AC adapter today as soon as I reported that the laptop reduces the battery charge during the game. That helped.

Same problem...

 

there are actually 2 330w adapters, my old one is DA330PM111, the old new came with LA330PM160 but I was using the new laptop with the old adapter so it was not the cause of the shuttering.

 

Though I wouldn't recommend it, since you are testing, how long and how many times did u run intensive games on a system without thermal pads? I'm highly surprised there's no permanent damage to your new laptop by now. Evga gtx 1080 went up in smokes because of VRM overheating and they even issued free thermal pad replacements to rectify this problem.

 

not all 1080 chip are created the same, the new MaxQ 1080 give me the idea that maybe my 1080 is just a bad apple and cannot handle high wattage or high thermal, so I ordered a brand new one and confirmed indeed it is. I am just pissed that I wasted over $100 worth of good thermal pads and LM on my POS not counting the hours trying to repaste and repad. Should have just returned for a refund on day 1. So for the new owners don't be like me you are just digging your self into a deeper hole. If you really want this laptop just keep ordering new ones until you get one that doesn't shutter.

 

75C max is like a comfortable operating temperature for Toshiba ssd. We typically get well over 80C easily even while just gaming

 

30mins Rainbow 6 Siege and 30mins BF1, all max graphics GPU usage 99% power 150-190W, max GPU temp 75C which is really impressive for the dell toothpaste, Max CPU 85C

 

You've got a huge set of bxlls for that stunt, I'll give u that. There is no gtx 1080 in this world that I know of that are designed to work with exposed no cooling VRM & choke

 

i was so fed up, if i did burn it, I'll just return it, dell deserved this for selling us garbage chips. But to my surprise the GPU usage stayed at 99% and GPU core stayed around 1700 to 1800MHz, for my old 1080, less than 5 mins of rainbow 6 will cause nonstop shutter

 

what is wrong with your motherboard?

depending on the game i play, the laptop will drain battery under heavy gaming loads. this happened to both my 6820HK GTX1080 and 7820HK GTX1080. Both my 330W power adapters are DA330PM111, though one is revision A06 and the older one is revision A02. I've used both and they all drain battery power under certain gaming load. i received the 7820HK laptop early May. Both have A01 CCI heatsink.

I'm certainly not happy with it, but i'm just glad my stuttering issue is resolved.

 

here is a wild idea.. can it be related to the wifi card?
I ask this, because last weekend i redid my repaste and thermal pads.. in which it seems successful, despite I had ruined the killer wifi card pins, so i left it out for the week. I was able to get stutter free gaming through the ethernet lan.

I took the laptop with me for my work travel, and in the hotel, i was only able to wifi tether through my phone with higher ping, but also no stuttering.

Today I got home, and installed the replacement killer wifi card that I bought on amazon, and during my first round gaming session in overwatch, stuttering returned.. So i havent investigated any further yet as I havent tried another gaming session, but this is just an observation.

 

I'm still using the same killer WiFi card as before. since you are getting stuttering now, can you open up GPUz, make sure GPUz window is enlarged all the way from left to far right of the screen so you can monitor the activity under sensors tab, launch the game and play, let it stutter for 5-10min while playing, exit the game and check GPUz. do you see GPU load drop to 0% for a second then back to 99% when stutter happens? also what's the perfcap reading?

 

usb port is not working

Absolutely not. I have another network card and when I used it remained a problem

 

Alex, I have been having the same stuttering issues like most here and installing the old bios and trying just about everything else has not resolved the stuttering issues.

Running the GPUz showed exactly what you were saying in your post. When the stutter occurs, the GPU Load drops to 0. You'll see the white dip in the performance bar. The same applies to the Memory Controller Load and Bus Interface Load. Temperatures never exceed 70c. Sorry for my noobness in regards to this but what exactly does that prove about the GPU? What can I do??

 

Your laptop's power system in critical overheating.
It is necessary to replace thermal grease and thermal interfaces in critical locations .
Do not play on the laptop until you replace the thermal interfaces
This can permanently damage your laptop power system

 

Thanks for the response Zer0K. I'll do a repaste as soon as possible.

 

i totally agree with @Zer0K , you need to stop playing with your laptop before it causes any permenant damage. refer to my guide in the first page to try to resolve this issue if you are up for it. otherwise you can always contact dell and deal with their monkey tech support. it's not the problem with GPU temperature. since you are showing the exact symptoms i mentioned earlier, your power delivery components are overheating. do not focus only on repaste, pay more attention to the thermal pads surrounding the GPU

 

Understood, thanks for all the feedback. If the laptop already has permanent damages, chances are I would spot those damages quite easily right? ex. being crashes / device detection, etc? Or would they be more subtle and hard to spot?? Just trying to figure out if I should ask to replace the mobo or simply apply the thermal pads.

 

I expect all who buying AW models opt for longest possible Premium support!! Not a cheap or easy task replacing only the Gpu or Cpu if one of those being fried!!

 

I totally cheaped out. Only got the one year.
Any way to get an extension? After all this ordeal I wanna invest in bumper-to-bumper warranty

 

You can extend the warranty witout problems before the support year you already have expire.

 

Cool.
It was about 350€ to get it extended by one year at the time of purchase. Seeing as this is Dell, I bet I can find a better deal somewhere or sometime.

 

You have to deal with Dell so you can reduce the price for extended warranty/support. Don't let them empty your wallet!!

This is the price you have to pay for BGA hardware. Always MB replacement if something is screwed up!!

 

ok played all day stutter free.. I think the last time i was getting stuttering, was because I had some stuff on my desk that was within like 3 inches away from the rear vents.. which would be enough to cause an air block.

Now that I cleared room, seems solid.

 

those PD components and GDDR5x if not cooled properly can be an issue. what's your ambient room temperature?

 

What's the best price for warranty extension UK/EU people have found?

 

Holy crap, just bought a new R4 1080 refurb (for a splendid price from a splendid source; been buying Alienwares and its parts from him for couple of years now); finally decided to upgrade from my old m17x R3 upgraded with 780m.

Now I read of all that crap.
Already purchased proper paste (not a fan of LM) and a set of thermal pads, but I'm afraid this issue might persist.

The unit shall still be on one year warranty.
Should I urge them for a GPU swap if repasting/bending/thermal padding won't do the trick?
Can they replace the notebook when on warranty? Returning it back to the seller is not really an option (and I really, really want this friggin' notebook).

This is horrible for something that pricey.

 

Install this BIOS 1.0.5

http://www.filedropper.com/alienware15r317r4s1012k105

Install this vBIOS

http://www.filedropper.com/vbiosdowngrade17r41080

Stuttering should be gone after doing both of those.

 

Stuttering should be gone, but the underlying issue stays. And who knows if capping the performance will still work in a year or two with the hardware getting the beating it gets without proper cooling.

 

Even with the old BIO if you run GPUZ you will still see perf cap reason 4 (voltage reliability) under heavy load, granted the GPU won't drop to 0% like in the OC Bio but you can still see it drop to like 70% from 99%. The only way to really fix it is a motherboard replacement. A proper GTX 1080 will not stutter even without any thermal pads on VRM chokes and DDR5

 

Dell Support is at my house again.

The 17 R4 is crap for games but at least I'm making some techy friends

I did all of the assembly this time, much faster than the last time and this way I wasn't cringing half the time.

My new heatsink is a Sunnon one, looks more solid than the CCI I had. I kept the original thermal pads and only changed the thermal paste to Kryonaut.

The motherboard is weird, had a bunch of yellow stickers saying REV02 or something like that, should've taken a photo, maybe later. Tech guy says that usually means the board had been revised or has came in twice, but this one looks brand spanking new. My last replacement mobo was a refurbished unit with broken keyboard connectors...

New SSD is a SK Hynix. Was hoping for a Sammy but still better than my Trashiba

Will keep you guys updated, fingers crossed this one works!

 

hopefully the stuttering will be history
how is the temp on ur SK Hynix? Mine runs 10C hotter than Samsung (60C range)

 

If it has problems, then yes. But can you say the same about units without problems?
Btw, where did you get Sunnon HS?

 

Yeah of course, I was talking about my POS 17 R4. I could game better on a macbook!

Dell sent it in. I talked with support a fair bit, showed them the various revisions of the heatsink and they sent a Sunnon this time.

 

omg



It's working!!!

No freezing! At all!. Stock thermal pads, didn't even pay much attention if everything was making good contact or not....

It's glorious!

 

I agree the average person need to let dell handle this mess, but please stop misleading people with thermal pads removed and still working comment. this is not the right way and you should not be promoting this. and if your GPU does not drop to 0%, that's not stuttering. you need to meet both conditions which is GPU usage drop to 0% and perfcap reason vrel to qualify as stuttering.

 

Happy for you!

 

you will still feel slight stutter when it goes to 70% from 99% it will not be as pronoced as freeze for secs when it is droped to 0% but still noticeable. Regarding thermal pad removal and no stutter it is simply true. Termal pad is just not the cause of the stuttering. You seems to be the only one that fixed the stuttering, everyone else required a new motherboard replacement just like Shark00n and I

 

unless you are an engineer who designed those power circuit and cooling system, your findings are irrelevant. those thermal pads and heatsink are there put there for a reason. not a single GTX1080 in this world operating at 180W, be it laptop or desktop, can do without VRM, Chokes and GDDR5X cooling. so it's just your vivid imagination against the whole world.